Romance and religion

Michael Mackenzie’s Mile-End-set Adam’s
Wallis a tender tale of forbidden young love

LEBANESE-JEWISH LOVE AFFAIR: Dwyre and Bechara

by CHRISTOPHER SYKES

To quote a childhood hero of mine, Mr. T, I pity the fool who doesn’t appreciate a good love story. Don’t get me wrong; there’s a fine line between wishy-washy tales of unrequited love and a genuinely moving depiction of star-crossed lovers. Nobody said depicting love was easy, so when a good one comes along, it’s worth taking notice.

Cue local director Michael Mackenzie. While I didn’t catch The Baroness and the Pig, the cinematic adaptation of his own play which he shot back in 2002, it was nominated for a handful of Jutra Awards, including Best Direction. Not too shabby for a debut.

Six years later, Mackenzie makes a triumphant return with the low-budget but high-production value drama Adam’s Wall. Set in Mile-End, Wall is the story of an awkward, music-loving Jewish teenager Adam (Jesse Aaron Dwyre) who falls in love with spunky Christian-Lebanese Yasmine (Flavia Bechara), who’s recently left Beirut to live with her divorced father Najeeb (Paul Ahmarani).

Despite meeting Yasmine only a few minutes ago while stumbling onto an unnamed university’s anti-war demonstration (*cough, Concordia, cough*), Adam takes a shine to the winsome young lady. As fate would have it, they haphazardly meet again and Yasmine uses the opportunity to get back at her father by way of exchanging phone numbers under his nose. Pops doesn’t much like this as Adam’s grandfather (the perfectly cast Gabriel Gascon) is an Orthodox Rabbi who’s been giving him a hard time over the nude busts in his gallery window.

It must be said the film weighs in heavily on religious tolerance and Middle Eastern tensions. Adam’s parents were killed in the West Bank and Yasmine’s journalist mother is missing in war-torn Lebanon. It’s a formula that’s played itself out before. But Dwyre and Bechara share a chemistry which elevates the film to an intriguing Romeo and Juliet-inspired tale of forbidden young love. Politics aside, I sure like seeing Mount Royal on the big screen and Wall managed to warm up my chilly autumn day.

ADAM’S WALL SCREENS AT
EX-CENTRIS TODAY, THURSDAY OCT. 16,
3:45 P.M. AS PART OF THE FESTIVAL
DU NOUVEAU CINÉMA; IT OPENS IN
THEATRES ON FRIDAY, OCT. 17